The National History Bee and Bowl is an history focused academic competition directed by David Madden. It consists of the National History Bowl, a four-player team event played on pyramidal questions in a four-quarter format, and the National History Bee, an individual elimination-style event. Teams qualify for Nationals by placing above a certain threshold at regional Bowls; all sites also have a Varsity and JV division. In addition to the History Bee and Bowl, NHBB also organizes a number of other quizbowl-adjacent events, including the US History Bee and US Geography Championships.
For the 2010-11 school year, the local events were written by NHBB staff and Nationals were written by HSAPQ; until 2014, HSAPQ wrote for all History Bowl events, before that task fell to teams led by Matt Weiner in 2015 (but see here) and Brad Fischer in 2016 and beyond.
National History Bee and Bowl also incorporates middle and elementary school divisions. In February 2016, the running of the elementary and middle school division was transferred to ACE.
A History Bowl game consists of 4 quarters. The first quarter features tossups worth 10 points each. The second quarter features tossups and one-part bonuses, worth 10 points. The third quarter, known as the Lightning Round, gives teams 60 seconds to answer a series of eight increasingly difficult short questions on a particular theme. Questions missed by one team "bounceback" to the other team. Finally, the fourth quarter features powermarked tossups worth 30, 20, or 10 points.
During regional competitions and the preliminary rounds of nationals, history bee questions are simply a series of 35-tossups, worth 1 point each. However, students who get eight questions are said to "exit" the round, and gain a number of bonus points based on where they exit (for a total score ranging from 8 to 15).
At the playoff rounds of nationals, the history bee uses the 6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring system. Tossups are powermarked, and based on where a student buzzes they can earn either 6, 5, 4, or 3 points if they are correct. If they are incorrect, they suffer a -2 penalty if they buzzed before the end of the tossup, and a -1 penalty otherwise.
In both local bees and national bees, 3 incorrect interrupts "kill" the question.
Past Champions and Results
Bowl
Bee
| Year
|
Bee Champion
|
Bee Runner-Up
|
JV Bee Champion
|
JV Bee Runner-Up
|
MS Bee Champion
|
| 2011
|
Mark Arildsen, University School of Nashville
|
Nicholas Brumfield, Parkersburg High
|
Sameer Rai, Bellarmine
|
Mickey Gioia, Stepton HS
|
|
| 2012
|
Alex Frey, St. Joseph
|
Richard Yu, Hunter
Mark Arildsen, University School of Nashville
|
Sameer Rai, Bellarmine
|
Jonathan Leidenheimer, George C. Marshall
|
Tajin Rogers, Longfellow
|
| 2013
|
Sameer Rai, Bellarmine
|
Jonathan Leidenheimer, George C. Marshall
|
Connor Wood, Maggie Walker
|
Nirav Ilango, Chattahoochee
|
Jonathan Tran, Stoller
|
| 2014
|
Jonathan Leidenheimer, George C. Marshall
|
Sameer Rai, Bellarmine
|
Daniel Yan, Farragut
|
Chandler Burrows, Rolla
|
Alex Schmidt, Seven Generations Charter School
|
| 2015
|
Bruce Lou, Saratoga
|
Austin Foos, Detroit Catholic Central
|
Alex Schmidt, Lehigh Valley Academy
|
John Peter Connor, E. WA Homeschool
|
Benji Chiu, Stoller
|
| 2016
|
Jakob Myers, Naperville North
|
Devin Shang, Lexington
|
Douglas Simons, High Tech
|
Rohan Hegde, TJHSST
|
8th Grade: Govind Prabakhar, Buffalo Grove Aptakisic
7th Grade: Enzo Cunanan, Trinity Prep
|
| 2017
|
Jakob Myers, Naperville North
|
Jonathan Tran, Westview
|
Justin Young, McLean
|
William Golden, James E. Taylor
|
8th Grade: Arjun Nageswaran, Buffalo Grove Aptakisic
7th Grade: Robert Muniz, Midtown Classical
|
| 2018
|
Alex Schmidt, Lehigh Valley
|
Fred Zhang, Thomas Jefferson
|
Govind Prabhakar, Stevenson
|
Walker Combs, George Washington
|
8th Grade: Robert Muniz, Midtown Classical
7th Grade: Rishabh Wuppalapati, Daniel Wright Junior High
|
| 2019
|
Hari Parameswaran, Beavercreek
|
Eshaan Vakil, Ed W. Clark
|
Shiva Oswal, Team Pi-Oneers
|
Avinash Iyer, Team Escobar (CA)
|
8th Grade: Vaibhav Rangan, Joaquin Miller Middle School
7th Grade: Daniel Figueroa, Ransom Everglades
6th Grade: Arin Parsa, Challenger Almaden
|
| 2020
|
Pedro Juan Orduz, Hunter
|
Arjun Nageswaran, Stevenson
|
Andrew Zeng, Hunter
|
Rishabh Wuppalapati, Stevenson
|
8th Grade: Bradford Kimball, Buckingham Browne & Nichols School
7th Grade: Arin Parsa, Team History Scholars
6th Grade: Shounak Bhindwale, Harvest Park
|
| 2021
|
Andrew Zeng, Hunter
|
Liam Starnes, Barrington
|
Ian Lu, Hunter
|
Cole Hartung, Kinkaid
|
8th Grade: Arin Parsa, Stanford Online
7th Grade: Shounak Bhindwale, Harvest Park
6th Grade: Parker Jelke, Ransom Everglades
|
| 2022
|
Andrew Zeng, Hunter
|
Ian Lu, Hunter
|
Robert Wang, Livingston
|
Cole Hartung, Kinkaid
|
8th Grade: Maximillian Lin, Eastchester
7th Grade: Padraig Finan, Risdon
6th Grade: Satvik Jain, Burleigh Manor
Elementary: Neel Jayaraman (4th), TAG Young Scholars
|
| 2023
|
Ian Lu, Hunter
|
Tanuj Chandekar, Hunter
|
Robert Wang, Livingston
|
Shrihith Talapeneni, George School
|
8th Grade: Padraig Finan, Risdon
7th Grade: Malcolm McIntyre, Alice Deal
6th Grade: Sebastian Jones, Dent
5th Grade: Miller Angevine, Woodward Academy
K-4: Aarnav Rudraraju, Challenger Ardenwood
|
| 2024
|
Robert Wang, Livingston
|
Shrihith Talapeneni, George School
|
Pranavkrishna Bharanidharan, Bella Vista
|
Spencer Manning, Stevenson
|
8th Grade: TBA
7th Grade: TBA
6th Grade: TBA
5th Grade: TBA
K-4: TBA
|